By: Lea Kahn
The developer of the proposed Federal Point senior citizens housing development will have to wait until next month to find out whether the township Planning Board gives it the stamp of approval.
Pennington Properties Development Corp. representatives outlined the plans for the Federal Point subdivision before the Planning Board last week. It is proposed for the 37.2-acre Evans Tract off Federal City Road at the Interstate 95 ramp. It borders the Federal Hill single-family-house subdivision.
The plan calls for subdividing the tract into three parcels. Lot A is proposed to be 3.1 acres, Lot B is 23.2 acres and Lot C is 10.8 acres. All of the lots will be accessible off a spine road, which is an extension of the access road that leads to the Assemblies of God offices.
A 10,270-square-foot medical office building is planned for Lot A, project engineer Fred Coco told the Planning Board at its Sept. 18 meeting. There will be two driveway entrances to the office building, along with 50 parking spaces.
The second lot will contain the 80-unit "active adult" community, Mr. Coco said. Of the 80 units, 36 will be set aside for low- and moderate-income households. They will be interspersed among the market-rate units. The design of the active adult community is identical to the Pennington Point and Lawrenceville Point subdivisions, with the units constructed in buildings of four units each.
On the third lot, at the end of the spine road, the plans show a 130-bed assisted-living facility, Mr. Coco said. Another developer, other than Pennington Properties Development Corp., is interested in building the assisted-living facility.
Mr. Coco said he tried to design a dense landscape buffer, plus an 8-foot-tall fence, to screen the project from the houses in the Federal Hill subdivision. The plan shows 2- to 4-foot tall berms.
The development is being built to meet the needs of senior citizens, said attorney Daniel Haggerty III, who represents the applicant. Ten years ago, no one would have thought about developing the Evans Tract, but now there is less land on which to build, he said.
There is a demand for the type of housing that is being proposed, said Mark Ellenbogen of Pennington Properties. The Lawrenceville Point subdivision had 88 units, and all but 11 have been sold since it opened in June 1999, he said. Lawrenceville Point is located off Bunker Hill Road.
The proposed active adult community, aimed at senior citizens who are at least 55 years old, will offer them a chance to stay in town, Mr. Ellenbogen said. He said he gets a half-dozen calls daily from would-be homebuyers. Most of the customers are in their late 60s, he added.
Three models will be offered, Mr. Ellenbogen said. The market rate units will be two- and three-bedroom units, but the affordable-housing units are proposed to be one-bedroom units. The market-rate units will range from 1,300 to 1,600 square feet in size, and the affordable-housing units will be smaller.
There is not much demand for one-bedroom market-rate units, Mr. Ellenbogen said. Widows and widowers are the ones who are looking for the affordable units, he said.
A survey of purchasers showed that few want amenities such as a swimming pool or tennis courts, Mr. Ellenbogen said. They likely still belong to their former golf, tennis and/or swim clubs, he said.
The development’s clubhouse will offer a weight room and exercise room, he said. There may be bridge clubs and travel clubs. It will offer more of a social environment than a high activity environment, he said. The senior citizens also like to walk.
Acknowledging the proximity to I-95 and the Federal Hill subdivision, Mr. Haggerty said his client wishes the units could be moved farther away from the highway, but there is not much land in the 37.2-acre tract that can be developed.
Mayor Greg Puliti, who sits on the Planning Board, said residents in the Long Acres and Woodmont developments bordering I-95 have pressured state and township officials for a noise barrier. It is possible that the new residents in the Federal Point development will seek a noise barrier, he said.
There may be some residents who do approach Township Council about a noise barrier, Mr. Haggerty said. The developer will design the interiors of the units to be noise-proof, so residents will hear noise only when they are outdoors.
Mr. Ellenbogen, the developer, said it should be obvious to buyers that the highway is nearby. To reduce the noise inside the units, there will be three layers of glass and insulation to block the sounds, he said.
Planning Board attorney Arthur Sypek Jr. urged the developer to make full disclosure of the noise issue. In addition to the highway, there may be noise from airplanes at the Mercer County Airport, he said. The proposed airport expansion will make the noise from the highway seem "trivial," he added.
When Township Councilwoman Pam Mount, a Planning Board member, asked how the three phases relate to each other, Mr. Haggerty said the hope is that there will be "cross-fertilization" – that as the residents "age in place," there will be somewhere for them to go nearby. The assisted-living facility is available for older senior citizens who need more help.
The Planning Board ran out of time to listen to additional testimony from the applicant. It has scheduled the public hearing to continue at its Oct. 16 meeting.
